


science and cars and girls, oh my

by sleeponrooftops



Series: raising webhead: a parenting guide, attempted by the science boyfriends [41]
Category: Iron Man - All Media Types, Marvel, Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Incredible Hulk - All Media Types
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-20
Updated: 2013-07-20
Packaged: 2017-12-20 18:36:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/890519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleeponrooftops/pseuds/sleeponrooftops
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peter spends some down time with Tony and Bruce each, getting to know their respective pasts a little more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	science and cars and girls, oh my

_Three months later._

_October, 2023_

“Hey, what’re you working on?” Peter asks as he takes a seat next to Bruce, legs folded up underneath him.

 

Bruce doesn’t answer right away, and Peter waits until he leans back from his microscope.  “Take a look,” he says, rolling away.

 

Peter takes his place, peering through the lenses, and he gasps, “Woah, dad.  This is so cool.  What is it?”

 

“Reed asked me to take a look at Johnny’s blood.  Remember when he got sick last month?”

 

“Yeah, Uncle Reed said his core temperature was, like, 500 degrees or something, and the hospital didn’t know what to do with him.  Aren’t you supposed to die if it gets, like, over a certain number in the 100s?”

 

“Don’t forget, Johnny’s core temperature is a lot higher than regular humans.”

 

“Okay, so—does he have that limit?”

 

“That’s what Reed wanted me to look into.  I took a blood sample while he had the fever and a week after it was gone, and I’ve been studying them for a few days, seeing what I can.”

 

“So, this is blood?” Peter asks, looking back to the microscope, “Does mine look like that?”

 

“Wanna see?”

 

“Yes!” Peter exclaims, already shrugging out of his sweatshirt.  He rolls up his sleeve and holds out his arm, watching as Bruce draws a small amount of blood, and then sets up a new slide.  He walks Peter through the steps out loud, answering whatever questions Peter has, and then they’re taking a look at his blood through the microscope.  “ _Woah_ ,” Peter says when he looks, “That’s _weird_.  What about yours?”

 

“I don’t think so.”

 

“Awh, come on, dad.  Look, I’ll be really careful.  I’ll even wear gloves and a mask and whatever you want.”

 

“Peter, it’s dangerous,” Bruce sighs, but Peter just pouts at him, and Bruce shakes his head.  “You’re worse than your father sometimes,” he mutters, and Peter grins.

 

They spend the rest of the afternoon looking at the differences, Bruce taking notes while Peter rambles on about school, answering all of Bruce’s questions.  When Bruce asks about girls, Peter blushes and shrugs.  “There’s this girl, Gwen, that I kind of like.”

 

“Oh yeah?” Bruce says, smiling, “How’d you meet her?”

 

“Well, do you remember in kindergarten, Flash had a friend that was a girl?”

 

“Gwen,” Bruce says, nodding, “Yeah, I remember her.  The same girl?”

 

“Yeah.  I mean—it sucked cos Flash likes her, too, but we talked about it, and he said that _she_ told him that she kind of liked me, so he said he’d back off.  He likes this other girl more, anyway.”

 

“Are you gonna take her on a date?”

 

“Dad, I’m thirteen!” Peter exclaims, laughing at him.  He falls quiet, rocking his chair back and forth for a bit before he looks over at Bruce and asks, “Can I ask you a weird question, and can you promise not to tell dad?”

 

“That depends,” Bruce says, looking up from his notes.

 

“It’s nothing bad,” Peter amends, shrugging, “Just—well, everyone always says dad used to be a—a playboy before he met you, and I don’t want to ask him.”

 

“Do you know what that word means?”

 

“Dad, I’m thirteen,” he says, and, this time, Bruce laughs.

 

“Alright, what’s up?”

  
“When, uhm—when did you have your first kiss?”

 

“When I was in college, actually,” Bruce says, smiling softly, “I graduated early, at twenty, but there was this girl in one of my classes, before I met Betty.  We dated for about a year and a half.  She was my first of a lot of things.”

 

“Ew, dad,” Peter says, scrunching up his nose.

 

“Hey, you asked.  Why, you thinking about kissing Gwen?”

 

“No!” Peter says quickly, blushing furiously, and then deflates at Bruce’s expression, “Maybe.  I don’t know.”

 

“You’re still young, don’t rush things,” Bruce says, and Peter nods, sighing before he untangles himself from the seat.

 

“Do you know where dad is?” he asks.

 

“I think he’s in the garage, working.  And, Peter—just because people say those things about dad doesn’t mean they were always necessarily true.  I’d ask him about this, too.  You might be surprised by the answer.”

 

“Thanks, dad,” Peter says, giving him a hug before heading out of the lab and down the hall to the elevator.  “Dad?” he calls when he gets into the garage, looking around.  Tony is nowhere to be found, though there’s rock music leaking out of the speakers overhead.  “Jarvis, kill the tunes, man,” Peter says, getting to his hands and knees and looking across the floor.

 

“ _Bruce_!” Tony whines from somewhere in the garage when the music cuts out, and Peter shakes his head, standing and heading over.

 

“Peter,” he corrects, kicking Tony’s foot lightly.

 

“ _Peter_!” he amends even as he rolls out from underneath the car, “What’s up, webhead?”

 

“What are you doing under there?”

 

“Working.  I do have a PhD in mechanics.”

 

“ _Electrical engineering_ ,” Peter says, but Tony just rolls his eyes and gets up, going over to the open hood.

 

“Same thing,” he mutters, “The one thing my father actually did with me when I was younger was work on cars.  I never could believe it when he’d ask me for help because he never wanted me to touch anything, but he was always looking for me when he was in the garage.  It’s one of the few fond memories I have of him,” he says, smiling over at Peter, and then he straightens.  “You ever worked on a car before?”

 

“Uh, considering you’ve known me my whole life, you should know that’s a no.”

 

“Well, someone’s a smartass,” Tony teases, “C’mere.  See that?”

 

“See what?” Peter says, looking into the hood of the car.

 

Tony looks over at him, watching his eyes flick over the different parts behind his thick-rimmed glasses, and he smiles, bumping shoulders with him.  “This one’s pretty beat up, doesn’t even run anymore.  Dad’s always giving me grief for buying shitty cars and rebuilding them, but it keeps my hands busy when my head’s going crazy.  Just too much going on up there sometimes, you know?  So, I come down here, I tinker in a different way.  What d’you say—wanna help your old man on this car?”

  
“You’re such a loser,” Peter says, looking over at him with an open grin, “Did you seriously just say old man?”

 

“Shut up,” Tony grumbles, pushing him lightly.

 

Peter just laughs and pushes him back before nodding and saying, “Yeah, that’d be fun.”  He thinks about asking Tony about girls and first kisses, but he figures that can wait and instead just enjoys the afternoon getting greasy and learning about the inside of a car.


End file.
